An impression of mass rapid transit in the Let's Get Wellington Moving transport package. Photo / Supplied.
ANALYSIS:
Wellington is not London; it does not do transfers on public transport well.
In fact, the city's experience of transfers on its bus network has been somewhat of a disaster.
So it was only a matter of time before questions were asked about how many transfers would be involved in plans for mass rapid transit in the capital.
The golden child in the $6.4 billion Let's Get Wellington Moving transport project is mass rapid transit.
This central spine from the railway station to the airport will have to connect with local buses and trains for it to work.
That means transfers.
Greater Wellington Regional Council Sustainable Transport Committee deputy chair Daran Ponter wants a report on the extent of these transfers to be completed in tandem with the business case for mass rapid transit.
The city's new bus network, commonly known as the bustastrophe or the lasagne of failure, left a bad taste in the mouths of Wellingtonians.
The original proposal for the bus network was to have as many as 25 per cent of journeys involving hubbing, which is another name for transfers.
With the benefit of hindsight, Ponter and his transport colleagues would have breathed a sigh of relief that proposal never eventuated.
Instead, hubbing increased from about 4 per cent of journeys to 7 per cent.
But not all the hubs where people would wait for their transfers were actually built at the time of the network rollout.
Even worse, services passengers would have to transfer between were operated by different bus companies which had no way of communicating with one another.
It prompted a strong public backlash following which Ponter announced he was embarking on a "hub busting" exercise and removed as many transfers as possible.
Much of the narrative around mass rapid transit thus far has been on which route it will take and what technology will go on it.
Will it be trackless trams, light rail or bus rapid transit?
Ponter's argument is that the decision can't be made without knowing the extent of the transfers for each technology.
He's got a notice of motion planned for a Sustainable Transport Committee this week asking for just that.
He also wants the report to cover the extent transferring might be reduced or minimised and how it might be better accommodated.
"Wellington is not Tokyo, London or even somewhere like Melbourne.
"We just don't have the population to justify the frequency of service that would give you a two-minute or three-minute overlap so that makes it even more critical that we understand how transfers will be managed," Ponter said.
That's the problem those looking at the finer details of Let's Get Wellington Moving will have to consider.
How long will commuters be willing to wait for their transfer? And if they miss it, how long will that make the wait?
In London it's minutes, in Wellington would it be half an hour?
Those are the questions politicians will want answers to because otherwise they run the risk of looking like they've learned nothing from the past year of bus chaos in the capital.
They know they'll be facing commuters who are unlikely to be as patient as they otherwise would be having that last year of transport woes fresh in their minds.
The video purportedly shows him scaling down from the eighth floor.